Wednesday, May 01, 2013

2013 ICSA Co-ed Semi-finals


Hampton University and Old Dominion University hosted the 2013 ISCA National Co-ed Semi-finals over the weekend of April 27-28. The event was sailed on the Hampton Roads off of the shores of Hampton, Virginia, located in-between the James River and the
Matt Graham and Karinne Smolenyak
Chesapeake Bay. The team arrived in Norfolk, VA, late Friday night and stayed at Tom Etheridge’s (’16) house over the weekend. Throughout the weekend while at the regatta or at the Etheridge’s house, the team was spoiled by the fantastic hospitality of the Etheridge’s.


Semi-finals is the largest collegiate dinghy regatta of the year, the regatta consisted of 36 teams and more than 250 sailors, which provided a different feel than the usual collegiate regatta. The 36 teams are broken down by seedings from their own districts into 2 fleets of 18 boats. Then the top 9 from each fleet of 18 make it to co-ed fleet racing nationals. 

Saturday’s weather couldn't of been any better; 70 degree temperatures, sunny skies and a 5-10 knot easterly breeze provided great races for the competitors. Our team started off the day strong, recording top five finishes in both divisions, rounding the first windward mark in first a few times and achieving numerous top 10 finishes. A division consisted of
Ryan Seago and Emily Gazall
Matt Graham ’13, Karinne Smolenyak ’14 and Tom Etheridge ’16 and B division was Ryan Seago ’14 and Emily Gazall ’16. At the end of the day the team was in 10th place in the

Eastern Semi-final, 15 pts behind the 9th place team and within 20 pts of 7th place.


Sunday started out with very similar conditions to Saturday, with mid-60 degree temperatures, mostly sunny skies, and the same 5-10 knot easterly breeze which built to 10-20 knots as the day wore on. The team started out with similar results to Saturday but then started to falter as the day progressed. The team finished off the regatta in 12th place after 26 races, with 39 pts separating us from qualifying for nationals.
-Ryan Seago '14